Slowly a snowfall begins. I survived a deadly blizzard in Gangotri exactly three years ago. Beautiful though, the last thing I wanted to do, to walk through a snowfall.
Lobuche isn’t supposed to be very far as it is 4 already in the night. The sudden change in the atmosphere and the growing altitude finally gave me very bad headaches. The pain on my head becomes unbearable as the snowfall becomes hard. Each step in this freezing place appears to be harder.
If I don’t drink some water right away, I will definitely collapse here. “Don’t drink it. Don’t drink it. Khadka interrupts me as he saw me run from the Imja Khola stream to drink the unclean water. I tried to stay on my feet with confidence until I saw the Lobuche hotels. The house rent (500 Rs) is to be paid at an interchangeable stand at the entrance, not in the hotel you check in. There is a strange custom in the high town. The reasons are well written on the cabin walls, which I have never troubled reading….through my priorities.
I came into the restaurant, Dewan has chosen, with a heavy head. Breathing is an alarming problem at the moment, not due to the altitude but due to the chimney. The sudden snowfall blocks the passage of smoke, and it continues to fill up the restaurant, quickly filling up the rooms. That’s going to be alive hell tonight. To keep my consciousness, I have to get some fresh air.
The external situation is worse. All the congested hotels turned on their furnace to cook and stay warm in the dining hall, but the heavy winds from the mountains do not permit the smoke to go up. Lobuche has now switched to a steam engine. At least 2 inches of snow on the ground are now dropped. Ajin was very excited to see his first snowfall in life before!
After today’s self-torture walk, we have a miserable condition. “I don’t believe I can or I don’t want to do Kala Pathar. We’ve signed up for Base Camp.” “Manu let’s see tomorrow’s condition.” Without any effort to join them I sit down in the bed stupid to listen to Vikram and Manu’s conversation.
My headache is now gone, Miracle, and I have all been pumped up for the big day. The base camp itself is now reaching its destination. But first we must reach Gorakshep through the Lobuche pass that still has the white snow cloth, which had donated last night. In this dazzling cold morning, it is not easy to walk in the shades of the mountains. Behind mountains the sun is yet to reach, but we cannot wait until then. As Dewan said, it’ll be a really long day, well… it’ll be like this from now on.
We are at the edge of a sea of gorakshep people. I didn’t see such a crowd after I left Namche. Have all these people stayed yesterday at Lobuche because surly this little village cannot hold these many people? At the bottom of the line, a very steep climb appeared horribly, making bad dreams about yesterday but we finally climbed this monster with many necessary stops to relax. The trail before us is the toughest way we have seen so far, unlike yesterday, surly not comforting. Well, I haven’t received a headache. Yet!
Walking along Gorakshep through the white snow cover
We are at the edge of a sea of gorakshep people. I didn’t see such a crowd after I left Namche. Have all these people stayed yesterday at Lobuche because surly this little village cannot hold these many people? At the bottom of the line, a very steep climb appeared horribly, making bad dreams about yesterday but we finally climbed this monster with many necessary stops to relax. The trail before us is the toughest way we have seen so far, unlike yesterday, surely not comforting. Well, I haven’t received a headache. However! However!
And there finally appearing down the valley is Gorakshep, the last habitable spot for the trekkers. Dewan shows the way to Kala Pathar on the contrary to the hotels on the hill. All along each black stone hill on the top of it was Kala (black) Pathar (stone) for us, but it was not close to our conjectures in the end!” We have three hours to travel to the base camp. It is 3 hours. I know Dewan added clearly the time to know the speed of our snail.
